Originally, there was a pets group as a list, then there were various
narrowings till there was finally a ferrets-only one. Then we began
being harassed and Chris Lewis asked how many of us would like a
private list. Almost all of us on the public list loved the idea so
the public list went away and the FML began.
When Bill Gruber joined he quickly became the person who provided
privacy for people who lived in FFZs. FFZs are ferret free zones where
ferrets are illegal. Those were in much greater supply before the work
which established that there is an effective rabies vaccine and then
in ten more years after that the pro-ferret change to the Compendium
for Rabies Prevention and Control thanks to work by Charles Rupprecht
et al.)
When Chris decided to stop being the moderator he tapped Bill to take
over and Bill has been doing it ever since. *****How many years have
you been doing it now and helping us all, Bill? 18? 19? 20?*****
[Moderator's note: Distributed the FML since 1992 but only started
moderating it full time in late 1994. It's now 5871 FMLs later. BIG]
The FML is the longest lived constantly running ferret list, and has
actually been studied because so few lists are able to go more than a
few years while maintaining a large membership.
Kudos, Bill, on doing an INCREDIBLE JOB for so long and helping ferrets
and ferret people almost each and every day for something close to two
decades.
23 years! Gads! What was that, 1987 that a few us (maybe about a dozen
of us?) got tired of the jerks who were sending in gory "ferret
recipes" and went off on our own?
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/http://ferrethealth.org/archive/http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.htmlhttp://www.miamiferret.org/http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/http://www.ferretcongress.org/http://www.trifl.org/index.shtmlhttp://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
"All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow."
(2010, Steve Crandall)
On change for its own sake: "You can go really fast if you just jump
off the cliff." (2010, Steve Crandall)
[Posted in FML 6898]
